Shibboleths

[tous]

6 minutes ago, gwalchmai said:

You may have hit upon the answer to the world's energy problem... 

So, you're a-sayin' that they might could harness the energy generated by folk polishing their bayonets?

Hook up that arm to a generator!

Brilliant!

[Huaco Kid]

11 minutes ago, gwalchmai said:

You may have hit upon the answer to the world's energy problem... 

I propose that you can get vegan-fed hookers with your EBT card.

Internet usage drops to near zero.

[gwalchmai]

44 minutes ago, tous said:

So, you're a-sayin' that they might could harness the energy generated by folk polishing their bayonets?

Hook up that arm to a generator!

Brilliant!

Just like winding a watch.

[minervadoe]

I found this passage in an article I read today.

Quote

American innovation thrived from the late 18th century onward, with wars and hard times galvanizing invention and myriad spin-offs that have benefited humankind in unforeseen ways.  Incentivizing invention made America a superpower — took it into space and into the molecular-level research that is unfolding the secrets of life itself.  Not for nothing have Yankee ingenuity and can-do spirit become American shibboleths.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/the_death_warrant_for_american_ingenuity.html

[railfancwb]

6 hours ago, minervadoe said:

I found this passage in an article I read today.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/the_death_warrant_for_american_ingenuity.html

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck.

Robert A. Heinlein

[minervadoe]

bush-league  adjective

\ ˈbu̇sh-ˌlēg

: being of an inferior class or group of its kind : marked by a lack of sophistication or professionalism

slang Subpar or inept; lame. The phrase comes from minor league baseball, in which some teams played on unkempt fields bordered by bushes, or in rural, "bush" towns. Primarily heard in US. Their operation is pretty bush league—no professionalism at all. The way you just let that forward go around you and score was bush league, dude—show some effort and play harder

Also see Bushleague. Adj. 1) Below good standards, not good or incorrect. Pitiful, poor, terrible, awful, bad, sucky,

"That's a bushleague call, ref."

"That kid is real bushleague."

[minervadoe]

M.R. - An acronym for the phrase mentally retarded.  The phrase has fallen from common parlance due to the politically correct trend to discard phrases which are direct and descriptive. 

Websters:

intellectual disability : intellectually disabled

Note: The use of intellectually disabled is now preferred over mentally retarded in medical, educational, and regulatory contexts, as well as in general use. The term mentally retarded is increasingly considered offensive, though it was the dominant term into the second decade of the current century.

[Mrs.Cicero]

36 minutes ago, minervadoe said:

M.R. - An acronym for the phrase mentally retarded.  The phrase has fallen from common parlance due to the politically correct trend to discard phrases which are direct and descriptive. 

Websters:

intellectual disability : intellectually disabled

Note: The use of intellectually disabled is now preferred over mentally retarded in medical, educational, and regulatory contexts, as well as in general use. The term mentally retarded is increasingly considered offensive, though it was the dominant term into the second decade of the current century.

What's really fun is listening to people whinge about how the use of the term "disabled" is demeaning.  Hell, it isn't even being applied as a pejorative, just a descriptive.  if you look at the list of terms over history that originally described people whose brains just ain't right - you'll find they all started out as medical terms for a mentally below-average condition, and were gradually expanded into the common parlance to mean "stupid."  Go back to "cretin" and then "moron" and then "retarded"  - WHATEVER new term they come up with ("differently abled" anyone?) is, over time,  going to become an insult for someone behaving with less sense than they ought to have.  That's just what language DOES.  It's short-bus thinking to pretend it isn't going to happen, and plain old dumb to waste energy arguing over what new term we should all use to avoid hurting people's feelings.  Teaching kids that insulting words can't hurt them unless they decide to let them is a helluva lot more effective long term.  And mentally and emotionally healthier, if anyone honestly cares about that.

 

[janice6]

On 8/29/2022 at 8:23 AM, tous said:

So, you're a-sayin' that they might could harness the energy generated by folk polishing their bayonets?

Hook up that arm to a generator!

Brilliant!

As soon as you do that you open it up to taxation..................

I'm sure the government is trying to figure out how to tax the act of sex, by the foot, inch, per event.  How to separate the actual occurrence versus the bizarre claims late night at the bar.

[janice6]

On 8/29/2022 at 9:09 AM, gwalchmai said:

Just like winding a watch.

I had two automatic winding watches.  Neither one would stay wound sufficiently to function for a full day.  I'm not going to buy the electrical "winders" for automatic watches.  That's like buying a vibrator.

[tous]

Perhaps a government surplus DVD rewinder would do the job.

The Obama administration funded the project for 40 billion dollars in 2009.

Some company in Chicago that Michelle's brother owned 50% of got the contract.

Nancy Pelosi shorted the stock and made millions.

And, yes.  The Big Guy got 10%.

[gwalchmai]

On 9/1/2022 at 12:38 PM, minervadoe said:

I found this passage in an article I read today.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/the_death_warrant_for_american_ingenuity.html

I'm old enough to remember when the image which came to mind upon hearing "American" was a rowdy guy rolling up his sleeves and  walking toward a big broken gadget with a wrench in his hand. He's still out there, but the media doesn't promote him as they did before the 80s. Victimhood garners more clicks than self-reliance.

Materially wealthy societies are more likely to buy solutions to problems rather than building them. I think that stunts curiosity and inventiveness, and thus an appreciation for these qualities in others.